Relationship Breaker? Unintended Births and Relationship Stability

Judith C. Koops, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)-KNAW/University Of Groningen
Ellen Verbakel , Radboud University
Clair Enthoven, Erasmus University Rotterdam

In Northern and Western Europe one fifth up to one third of all births are unintended. Research has demonstrated that unintended births are associated with adverse outcomes. The majority of these studies have focused on mental and physical health. The current study will answer the question to what extent unintended births are associated with relationship instability in the 5-6 years after the child’s birth. Moreover, it assesses whether this association varies by birth order and socio-economic status. We provide theoretical innovation by using the theories on the impact of children on separation and apply them to the situation of unintended versus intended births. We expect unintended births to go together with increased likelihood of relationship instability (i.e. they are a ‘relationship breaker’). Furthermore, we argue that the relationship breaker argument should play out more strongly in first versus higher order births and in lower versus higher socio-economic strata. The study uses information of 3,813 pregnant women interviewed in the Generation R study. This prospective cohort-study allows for an improved way to measure whether a pregnancy was planned or not, based on women’s assessment in the first 18 weeks of their pregnancy. Preliminary results suggest that women with an unintended birth were more likely to experience relationship instability during the first 5 years after the birth. However, this association did not differ by birth-order nor by socio-economic status.

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 Presented in Session 15. Union Dissolution